Dual sourcing for mitigating humanitarian supply chain disruptions
Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management
ISSN: 2042-6747
Article publication date: 7 October 2014
Abstract
Purpose
Proactive planning strategies for “slow-onset” disruptions that affect humanitarian supply chains (SC) developed to address chronic pressing societal problems, can have a significant impact on boosting the operational and financial performance of these chains. The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology that quantifies the impact of a risk mitigation strategy widely employed in commercial SCs, namely emergency sourcing (ES), on the performance of humanitarian SCs taking into account backorders’ clearance time, unsatisfied demand, and cost.
Design/methodology/approach
Discrete event simulation is employed in order to evaluate alternative ES strategies based on a total cost criterion, which incorporates inventory-related costs, as well as premium contract costs paid for emergency replenishment. Backorders’ clearance time and time-to-recovery are also employed as a design parameters.
Findings
The results document the significant impact of disruptions on expected total cost, and the beneficial role of ES in hedging against disruptions. To that end, the proposed methodology determines the optimal emergency contracted capacity for a given premium, or alternatively the maximum premium cost value that ensures the feasibility of the implemented ES strategy in the long-run, along with the associated cost and time savings, and reduction of the unsatisfied demand.
Originality/value
The fundamental objective is to provide a decision-making support methodology for deciding on whether to implement an ES strategy or not in humanitarian SCs, and the level of the optimal contracted reserved capacity. The results could be of great value to aid providers, policy-makers, and regulators.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research paper has been conducted in the context of the GREEN-AgriChains project that is funded from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-REGPOT-2012-2013-1) under Grant Agreement No. 316167. All the above reflect only the authors’ views; The European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
Citation
Iakovou, E., Vlachos, D., Keramydas, C. and Partsch, D. (2014), "Dual sourcing for mitigating humanitarian supply chain disruptions", Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 245-264. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHLSCM-03-2013-0008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited